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Sunday, July 1, 2012

Seeking Writing Exercises

I’m sure any writer would understand this,
but I’m dealing with character conflict. I’ve been plotting for months this
unwritten novel. I jab down little notes here and there over this book that
begs to be written. It seems every time I sit down to actually begin the
writing process I find myself feeling a little blocked. Like suddenly all my
abilities to write come to a standstill and I no longer know how to put words
together. My conflict does seem to come to a point with my lead character. A
character I shall not disclose the name of or backstory to just yet.

Now I swear it makes a person sound crazy,
but again I’m sure other writers out there can relate to this. My muse seems to
be the one causing the stall in the actual writing. It’s one of those moments
where I feel I need to feel this character out just a tiny bit more. So that
leads me to thinking of various writing exercises I should be trying. There’s
interviewing the muse, where I attempt to just write and let myself and the character
in question have a sit down and go with the flow of things. Don’t stop to
correct my grammar, just write! There’s also the 10-minute quick writes. Now a
personal favorite to get the fingers and mind pumping is the 10-minute quick
write. You write for 10 minutes straight then stop. Doesn’t matter what you
write about or how bad your grammar turns out in that 10 minutes. You just
write straight through the time, then stop.

Really though I wouldn’t mind looking into
other exercises to try. I think it’s time I really start making myself sit down
once or twice a day to perform one. Keep the blood flowing as writing is the
career I would love to take on. I’m always up for improving my craft and I
think finding a handful or more of various exercises to do regularly will
really help me with that. Any suggestions?